Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Treborough- 30th May 2011



Was really looking forward to this one which was held by the Xmoor club as they always put on decent events with proper enduro courses to test you. Travelled up there with ‘mad’ Jack who was still injured so wasn‘t riding, and his lad Paddy who’d entered the event. A whole load of riders, most of which do the SW rounds had also traveled up to do it so I wasn’t short of anyone to clap my eyes on for a chat!


Within 20 minutes of stepping out of the van the weather had turned rather dismal, then it turned more dismal, then it just turned into something like a scene from the ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ as mist, fog and general gloop descended upon us. In fact it was so bad that you couldn’t even see the end of the start straight that led into the woods! And then it started to rain as well! But that didn’t dampen the spirit, and I know for a fact that the hardened souls of the Xmoor club had run events in far worse conditions (other organisers take note) and it was nice to clap eyes on Mark and Debbie Tucker at the signing on van who were full of cheer (that doesn’t mean they were p*ssed by the way, not at 8.30 in the morning anyway!), so had a bit of a laugh with them, and then it was back to get changed and all that.


So to the start then and it was a big field of experts that had assembled on the line including plenty of us over 35’s mixing it with the youngsters. As the flag dropped I didn’t get too bad a start, but disaster struck me within 20 seconds as my ’rip n rolls’ failed because the cannister that holds the film had became detached and I couldn’t roll of any bloody film! This led to me getting completely ‘filled in’ following the bikes in front of me as they spat the mud into my face,. I just couldn’t see were I was going and bike after bike passed me until I had to stop and take my goggles off. By this time I was bloody well last, not a good sign then and it turned out to be the shape of things to come!


After a few minutes I’d made up a few places as riders were getting stuck on some of the slippery hills, I’d also had a little off but nothing spectacular. After about 10 mins we meandered down through the woods and into a deep rutted boggy section, this causing problems and I get held up by a bike that was stuck in front of me as he struggled to get himself free from the mire. Sods bloody law then it was that I too got stuck too, and to cut a long story short……………………my flamin clutch burnt itself out!


So stuck in a 3ft boggy rut (why do we do it?) I managed to haul the bike out and drag it to the stream at the bottom that was about 20ft away and park her up. The other side of the stream was a slippery little climb that was also causing hold ups as the riders were struggling to get to the top, so no chance of me getting up there then without a clutch then because I couldn’t even slam her into gear and ride up it, I tried but it wasn’t gonna happen. I stayed there and helped some of the riders who’d got stuck as the marshals had their hands full with riders queuing up as every passing lap ensued. The 1 hour mark passed and I was till there helping out as the situation had got no better. After another hour (yes 2 hours) I was still there helping out, but at least the field had thinned out a bit so it wasn’t as manic as before.


It was a this point that I really should think about getting back to the pits, but I couldn’t push the bike back through the boggy section, and I couldn’t push the bike up that slippery as ice covered muddy climb, so my 2 routes of escape were basically as good as chocolate fire guard! Another 30 mins passed and I was desperate to get back now as I knew the race would be ending soon so I went walkabout down through the stream which was shrouded in all sorts of undergrowth, to see where it led too. Good news as it led straight out into a fire road, so I knew if I could get the bike down through the steam about 200 meters, then I’d alright to get a tow back. Unfortunately the bad news was that there were 2 fallen trees blocking my path, so I tried to move them, or at least move them enough so I could get the bike passed them. No chance there then, and even the ‘HULK’ in a bad mood wouldn’t have been able to move the buggers let alone a 10 ½ stone beanpole like me. So then what do I do? I walked up and down a couple of times removing as many twigs, branches and brambles as I could along the stream and surveyed the 2 fallen trees to see if I could get the bike passed them. I knew upon looking that I’d have to lift the bike over one, and drag the bike under another because of the way they were laying and the shape of them, so it was off back to get the bike, scrape as much mud as I could off to make it lighter, and set off on my quest to get to that bloody fire road and freedom!


After 5 minutes of pushing the bike through the water came my 1st big test and tree no1. This was the one were I had to physically lift my bike over it in order to continue as I couldn’t get the bike up the bank either side (I tried) because it was just to steep and too high. I got the front wheel up ok and rested it onto the top of the fallen tree, but now the big test, to get round the back and lift the whole thing up from the ground to over shoulder height, push the bike and slide it onto the exhaust, push it over and slide it off to land it on it’s front wheel. It’s amazing what the body can do when it has do, and I reckon that thing must have weighed at least about 100kg with still loads of mud attached to it when I lifted the thing, but I did it. So now it was another trudge through the water about another 50 meters or so where I came across tree no2. This one was different, far too high to lift the bike over it as it had too many thick branches on top of it, and yet again with the banks either side of the stream being too high and too steep to get the bike up, I had to go under it. I layed the bike down into the water and pushed the front wheel under the tree as much as I could and crawled under myself to get to the other side. So now I had to drag the thing through the under side of the fallen tree, and when your kneeling down in rocky water and when your p*ssing with sweat, tired and flamin well starving, believe me, it ain’t easy. I didn’t really care about the state of my plastics or anything on the bike getting scratched, I just wanted to get the thing out and get to safety. After about 5 minutes of tugging on the bars I managed to drag her out and push the bike back down to the end and out into the fire road. I felt like bloody Superman after doing that! (Completely knackered though)


By now the race was over but I’d managed to stop a few riders who were still on their last lap and told them to send a quad back down to me so I could get a tow back. Within 10 mins the ‘search and rescue’ party had arrived in the shape of a beaming faced Mark Tucker. Jesus, I’d never been so pleased to see him in my life! So after hitching up a tow rope to the quad, I managed to get a tow back to the pits where at last I could enjoy a nice cuppa and something to eat.


Well you have to take the rough with the smooth in this game and doing what I did today will certainly live in my memory for a long time.


Finishing position: DNF